Self dissolved, God in every being
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जीवभाव त्याचा गेला अभिमान । ह्मणऊनि जन हांसे कंसा ॥1॥
सावध करितां नये देहावरि । देखोनियां दुरि पळे जन ॥2॥
जन वन हरि जालासे आपण । मग हे लोचन झांकियेले॥3॥
झांकुनि लोचन मौन्यें चि राहिला । नाहीं आतां बोलायाचें काम ॥4॥
बोलायासि दुजें नाहीं हें उरलें । जन कृष्ण जाले स्वयें रूप ॥5॥
रूप पालटलें गुण नाम याति । तुका ह्मणे भूतीं देव जाला ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
His ego and sense of self were gone. Therefore the people laughed at Kamsa. No matter how they tried to rouse him to bodily awareness, he could not return. Seeing this, people fled from him. Everything, people and forest alike, had become Hari to him. He closed his eyes and sat in silence. There was nothing left to say. Nothing second remained to be spoken of. The people had all become Krishna in his eyes, becoming that very form. Names, forms, qualities, and castes had all been transformed. Says Tuka, God became manifest in every being.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
His sense of self and his ego were gone, so the people laughed at Kamsa. However much they tried to rouse him back to bodily awareness, he would not return. Seeing this, people fled from him. Everything, people and forest alike, had become Hari to him. He closed his eyes and sat in silence. Now there was no need to speak. Nothing second was left to be spoken of. The people had all become Krishna in his eyes, become that very form. Names, forms, qualities, and castes had all been transformed. Tuka says: God became manifest in every being.
What it means
Tukaram describes the final state into which Kamsa's obsession carries him. His ego dissolves so completely that he cannot be roused, and the onlookers, who see only a man undone, laugh and flee. But within him there is no longer any second thing to point at: people, forest, all of it has become Hari, so he falls silent because speech needs duality and duality is gone. The verse ends on the wider truth glimpsed in that extreme: when name, form, quality, and caste fall away, God is seen present in every being.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
More in this theme →